INTERCEDING FROM THE HEART OF GOD PART III
Kay Keith Peebles 02/12/2021 21.06
In INTERCEDING FROM THE HEART OF GOD PART I, I noted the importance of knowing the Ways of God: “Many seek the Hand of God – His Acts, blessing. Some seek to know the Word of God – His Wisdom, but few seek to know the Ways of God – His heart motivation.” In that writing I emphasized that the Lord God uses man to intercede on behalf of the people by highlighting Abraham, Joseph, and Moses’ lives. I also emphasized that although the Lord is always righteous in His judgments, the sentence He pronounces may vary according to the heart of the individual.
Part II of INTERCEDING FROM THE HEART OF GOD stressed the profound unfailing love of God to apprehend the sinner’s heart and restore him back to God. While it is very dangerous to test the Lord in regard to sin (see Hebrews 6:4-6), He goes to great lengths to rescue those who are bound by its mesmerizing tentacles.
Now let us look even deeper into the ways of God and how He continually uses man to intercede for others.
Jesus came to show us what our Heavenly Father is like. As we study the Gospels, we learn He demonstrated the heart of God as He showed love, honor and compassion to those who were sick, bound and imprisoned with sin. However, He resisted and rebuked the proud, arrogant, and self-righteous rulers who took advantage of the broken and poor.
Jesus explained the meaning of the Law in order to show the people their sin so they might repent and turn back to the Lord in obedience to His will. It is the goodness of God that draws us to repentance. Romans 2:4. He was and still is the manifestation of the word of God, and the exact image of Father God.
“He made known His ways [of righteousness and justice] to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.” Psalm 103:7.
“If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know whether the teaching is of God or whether I speak on My own accord and by My own authority. He who speaks on his own accord seeks glory and honor for himself. But He who seeks the glory and the honor of the One who sent Him He is true, and there is no unrighteousness or deception in Him.” John 7:17-18. Emphasis mine.
Jesus had twelve disciples but only three (Peter, James and John) were allowed to be with Him on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9) and in the room where He raised Jarius’ daughter from the dead (Mark 5:22-24, 35-43). It was Peter, James and John who first began to grasp what Jesus was teaching and who He was, therefore Jesus took them into deeper revelation than the others. Hunger for God and a deep desire to know Him move the heart of God to respond and fulfill that desire in us.
When Jesus asked all of His disciples in Matthew Chapter 16 “Who do you say that I AM?” Peter proclaimed: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”. Peter had heard directly from the Father! Matthew 16:16-20. (The Holy Spirit had not yet been given to them.) He also cautioned them in verse 20: “He sternly and strictly charged and warned the disciples to tell no one that He was Jesus the Christ (Messiah).” Emphasis mine. The Lord will reveal secrets to His friends, and charge them not to share the revelation until He desires for it to be made known.
“The secret [of the wise counsel] of the LORD is for those who fear Him, and He will let them know His covenant and reveal to them [through His word] its [deep, inner] meaning.” Psalm 25:14. Emphasis mine.
Our relationship with the Lord is as strong and as deep as we choose to pursue Him. The Parable of the Talents in Matthew 25 clearly shows that the Lord offers us opportunity but what we choose to do with the opportunity will either cause us to increase or diminish.
“Keep on asking and it will be given to you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8.
When we seek God with our whole heart, we shall surely find Him. See Jeremiah 29:13. When we become like Abraham, Joseph, and Moses, or Peter, James and John, we will build Him an altar, a tent of meeting and enter into the “Secret Place” of the Most High of Psalm 91.
“I do not call you servants any longer, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you [My] friends, because I have revealed to you everything that I have heard from My Father. You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and I have appointed and placed and purposefully planted you, so that you would go and bear fruit and keep on bearing, and that your fruit will remain and be lasting, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name [as My representative] He may give you. This [is what] I command you: that you love and unselfishly seek the best for one another.” John 15:15-17. Emphasis mine.
We were born again to become disciples, true converts through repentance and sanctification. The definition of the word convert is: to make a change in one’s character, their actions and how they function in life. In essence, it means a change in purpose, direction and beliefs.
Jesus spent three years teaching His disciples who He was/is and how to walk in His ways. It was evident as they scattered in fear at his arrest and crucifixion they still didn’t get it. The transforming factor happened when they were baptized in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost! In the upper room when Jesus appeared to His disciples, He breathed on them and they received the Holy Spirit to be born again. But they were not empowered to know, understand, or walk fully in His ways until they received the “power” from on High by being baptized in the Holy Spirit! See Acts Chapter 2.
It is the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, who leads us into all truth. Through the infilling of the Holy Spirit we are enabled to “speak in tongues” which Paul described as speaking directly to God! Who wouldn’t want to speak directly to God? Who wouldn’t want to know the prayers they pray would all be answered by God because they are in complete agreement with His perfect will? This gift of the Holy Spirit is free to all who believe in Christ Jesus.
The Apostle Paul encouraged the early church: “Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire [this] love (1 Corinthians 13) [make it your aim, your great quest]; and earnestly desire and cultivate the spiritual endowments (gifts), especially that you may prophesy (interpret the divine will and purpose in inspired preaching and teaching). For one who speaks in an unknown tongue speaks not to men but to God, for no one understands or catches his meaning, because in the [Holy] Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things [not obvious to the understanding” 1 Corinthians 14 Emphasis mine.
If we are honest about our prayer life, often we pray what we want or what we think others need but we could be completely unaware of underlying factors in their lives. Some things the Lord does not want us to know about other’s situations because it’s their private issues, not ours to know. By praying in the Holy Spirit we can pray through those things without knowing personally what they are! God protects the privacy of the person we are interceding for and yet uses us to intercede for them according to His will. Paul admonished the church to pray in the Spirit and from their intellect but he also charged us to pray at all times.
“But when He, the Spirit of Truth (the Truth-giving Spirit) comes, He will guide you into all the Truth (the whole, full Truth). For He will not speak His own message [on His own authority]; but He will tell whatever He hears [from the Father; He will give the message that has been given to Him], and He will announce and declare to you the things that are to come [that will happen in the future]. He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you. Everything that the Father has is Mine. That is what I meant when I said that He [the Spirit] will take the things that are Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you.” John 16:13-15.
In Acts Chapter 12, King Herod had Peter put in jail after killing James the brother of John. Verse 5 states: “So Peter was kept in prison, but fervent and persistent prayer for him was being made to God by the church.” The Lord sent an angel who opened the prison doors, awoke Peter and led him out to freedom! Verse 12 says the church had gathered together and had been praying all night. See all of Acts Chapter 12.
When we pray in the Holy Spirit we are praying prayers that perfectly line up with God’s will. Therefore, we can be assured our Holy Spirit prayers will be answered by God. Sometimes the Lord will give us the interpretation of those prayers and then we know He heard when the answer comes!
The Lord has set a table before us in the presence of our enemies (Psalm 23). He has invited all with clean hands and a pure heart to meet Him in the secret place of the Most High (Psalm 91) and speak with Him as friend to friend. When we do, we will get to know Him, His acts, His word and His ways. Our hearts will become purged of self-righteousness and our desires will become merged to His. Then we will intercede from the Heart of God!